Pushback: Kroger must pay $180K to two Arkansas workers, fired for refusing to support the queer agenda
Bring a gun to a knife fight: To settle a lawsuit Kroeger has agreed to pay $180K to two Arkansas workers whom the company had fired when both asked to be excused from wearing company aprons that included a rainbow heart that they believed endorsed the queer agenda.
Workers at the store got the new uniforms in April 2019 that included a rainbow heart embroidered on the top left portion of the bib, according to court documents. Both of the workers believe the “literal interpretation of the Bible,” held “religious belief that homosexuality is a sin” and “sincerely believed the apron violated (their) religious beliefs,” according to the lawsuit.
One employee asked to wear their nametag over the logo. Another asked for a different apron. Both employees were fired within two months.
The image to the right shows an apron with this rainbow heart. While some suggest this heart has nothing to do with promoting homosexual rights, the company’s strong advocacy of the queer agenda says otherwise. From Kroger’s own website:
At The Kroger Co., we embrace diversity and inclusion as core values, and we ingrain these in everything we do. We proudly support our LGBTQ+ friends and family, and we’re proud of being named Human Rights Campaign Company of the Year in Greater Cincinnati.
The Kroger promotional video at this website is especially blunt about its support and advocacy of the queer agenda, under the guise of “inclusion” and “diversity.” It shows the company’s enthusiastic participation in a gay pride parade, including its own float with very young children included.
Kroger’s embrace of “inclusion” however did not include these two Christian employees, who were both fired simply because they expressed a dissenting view. As a result, the company now has pay both for violating their civil rights.
As part of the settlement, announced Thursday, Kroger has also agreed to develop a religious accommodation policy that will provide guidelines for workers seeking consideration for their beliefs. The company will also provide training to adhere to the policy.
Anyone who thinks this company is now going to treat its Christian employees fairly, however, is living in a fantasy world. Consider for example this exchange between Kroger’s CEO Rodney McMullen and Senator Tom Cotton at Senate hearings this week:
It is very clear from McMullen’s responses that he has no interest in protecting the rights of Christians, even after this settlement. The company will go through the motions, but based on its very clear pro-queer promotional materials, it will likely make life very uncomfortable for any practicing Christian or Jewish employees.
That he is now also asking conservative Republicans to help make possible the company’s planned merger with Albertson’s is, as Cotton makes clear, the height of hubris.
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Bring a gun to a knife fight: To settle a lawsuit Kroeger has agreed to pay $180K to two Arkansas workers whom the company had fired when both asked to be excused from wearing company aprons that included a rainbow heart that they believed endorsed the queer agenda.
Workers at the store got the new uniforms in April 2019 that included a rainbow heart embroidered on the top left portion of the bib, according to court documents. Both of the workers believe the “literal interpretation of the Bible,” held “religious belief that homosexuality is a sin” and “sincerely believed the apron violated (their) religious beliefs,” according to the lawsuit.
One employee asked to wear their nametag over the logo. Another asked for a different apron. Both employees were fired within two months.
The image to the right shows an apron with this rainbow heart. While some suggest this heart has nothing to do with promoting homosexual rights, the company’s strong advocacy of the queer agenda says otherwise. From Kroger’s own website:
At The Kroger Co., we embrace diversity and inclusion as core values, and we ingrain these in everything we do. We proudly support our LGBTQ+ friends and family, and we’re proud of being named Human Rights Campaign Company of the Year in Greater Cincinnati.
The Kroger promotional video at this website is especially blunt about its support and advocacy of the queer agenda, under the guise of “inclusion” and “diversity.” It shows the company’s enthusiastic participation in a gay pride parade, including its own float with very young children included.
Kroger’s embrace of “inclusion” however did not include these two Christian employees, who were both fired simply because they expressed a dissenting view. As a result, the company now has pay both for violating their civil rights.
As part of the settlement, announced Thursday, Kroger has also agreed to develop a religious accommodation policy that will provide guidelines for workers seeking consideration for their beliefs. The company will also provide training to adhere to the policy.
Anyone who thinks this company is now going to treat its Christian employees fairly, however, is living in a fantasy world. Consider for example this exchange between Kroger’s CEO Rodney McMullen and Senator Tom Cotton at Senate hearings this week:
It is very clear from McMullen’s responses that he has no interest in protecting the rights of Christians, even after this settlement. The company will go through the motions, but based on its very clear pro-queer promotional materials, it will likely make life very uncomfortable for any practicing Christian or Jewish employees.
That he is now also asking conservative Republicans to help make possible the company’s planned merger with Albertson’s is, as Cotton makes clear, the height of hubris.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I liked Senator Cotton’s ironic final remark: “I am sorry this happened to you. Best of luck.”. On the merits, it seems to me that allowing these two large grocery chains to merge would reduce competition and increase prices for consumers..
Bob Zimmerman, just a bit – the spelling in the headline should be “Kroger”, as it is in the text of the article.
Q: is Arkansas a right-to-work State? Is there any mention of what the Kroger Union (UFCW) thought about all this?
Ray–
I didn’t even notice that typo until you pointed it out.
Mr. Z.,
Are you aware that Fry’s Food and Drug, the major grocery retailer in Arizona, is a wholly owned division of Kroger?
Ray Van Dune: Oy. Thank you. Fixed.
Does anyone even know what “queer” means as a clinical term with practical meaning?
Dave: It means nothing in a scientific context. The term is one the gay community adopted willingly, to celebrate their sexual choices while actually and surprisingly describing them accurately. (The leftist rule with its manipulation of language has generally been to obscure reality with the choice of words. This time they did the opposite.)
I’ve tried not to get involved in discussions recently, but this one deserves an injection of sanity…
This article is a rare case of both sides being wrong…. The whole argument about gay/queer/whatever is basically redundant, let people love who they want to love, and that’s it.
There is a huge discussion to be had about gender reassignment and trans.rights. But that is a different discussion. I have many gay friends ( my ex wife is a hairdresser… A cliché that many hairdressers are gay, but true ) and they are to a man and woman, anti gender reassignment.
But this conversation is about a rainbow… I would never force anyone to wear a republican badge…
But I would also not get so butt hurt about wearing an apron with a logo that looked kinda a republican badge that I quit my job.
Some folks just like complaining and kicking up dust…
To Lee S.:
Yeah, it’s only a teeny-tiny little swastika on your apron…quit complaining and kicking up dust.
Uplifting one minute video of Harvard business prof Arthur Brooks on woke corporations.
Will Hild @WillHild
@ArthurBrooks on corporations going woke:
“We need to tell CEOs…3% of your employees are activists…blowing up your Slack demanding that you get involved in a culture war and make political statements. Don’t do it. The rest of your employees are feeling bullied as well…”
1:28 PM · Nov 30, 2022
https://twitter.com/WillHild/status/1598066568168345600
Having watched the LBGTQPBCD+++++ destroy the lives (and eventually the employment) of three outstanding and quietly devout Christian employees simply because they would not participate in “celebrations” of perverse behavior **at work**, I celebrate any defeat of these monsters and the embarrassment of their smug CEO enablers.
Judy Lysy [Feb. 27, 1928 to Jan. 18, 2019]
“Wearing the yellow star”
https://youtu.be/SnOGZI8t5KQ
2:03
Blackwing Cheers ?
Wayne Cheers ??
Daily Mail Origin: – – – – –
134 and Counting……..Alphabet Soup !!!
Sir Doubting Thomas !!!!
And the below still did not list Two Sprit or Twin Spirit…the American Indian Trans Version from at least 1800 AD. (98% M to F)
(Accomplished in the same vein as the Eunuchs of the Middle Kingdom Court) (a certain Great Admiral — Zheng He
Chinese explorer 1400s).
————–
EXCLUSIVE: Xenogender, gender outlaw [deleted]: San Francisco’s $1,200-a-month handout to low-income trans people tells them to choose from 134 genders and pronouns (and they can pick as many as they want)
The application has a total of 97 genders, 18 pronouns and 19 sexual orientations
Democrat-run city offers targeted benefits scheme to low-income trans people
One option, ‘xenogender’, means a gender beyond human understanding
Tickboxes for pronouns include neutral terms ‘ze/hir/hirs’ and ‘xe/xem/xyers’
And sexual orientations listed include ‘BDSM/kink’, ‘T4T’ and ‘skoliosexual’
People applying for San Francisco’s new transgender low-income scheme must choose between more than 130 genders, pronouns and sexualities.
The Democrat-run city is the second in America to offer targeted benefits specifically for residents who are transgender and make less than $600 a month.
_______
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11439455/San-Franciscos-trans-benefits-application-gender-pronoun-options.html
Alton: Adding some asterisks to an obscenity to partly hide it doesn’t cut it for me. You could have simply deleted the words (as I now have) and added an ellipse (…). Or you could have replaced it with “$%#@” symbols, which had been one of the old fashioned ways of dealing with such stuff.
Be aware and take care in the future. You are warned.
I am an atheist. I still would not want to be forced to wear a symbol of a political movement that is at best self-righteous and hectoring but in my opinion bullying, harassing, authoritarian (even totalitarian) and harmful to many of those they claim to support. As well as forcing others into the fetishes of supporters (public displays of sexuality by exhibitionists are sexual abuse of the unwilling viewers) and pushing child abuse, of course.
I understand that reinstatement is a remedy. Did the two employees who were sacked get their jobs back?